Responsible Investors Group Backs Occupy Wall Street Goals
Some of those in the 1 percent are stepping forward to express their support for the 99 percent, agreeing with Occupy Wall Street protesters that the nation’s financial system is seriously harming our economy. The latest to indicate their support for the 99 percent are the financially savvy members of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, who are calling for greater corporate transparency, restraint of excessive payouts to executives and support for the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The consumer bureau does not yet have a director because Senate Republicans have blocked a vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to lead the agency.
Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF (as the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment is also known) expressed solidarity with the Occupy protesters:
The Occupy movement occurring across the country, and indeed, around the world, speaks to many of the issues and concerns raised by sustainable and responsible investors over the past several decades—and particularly since the unfolding of the recent financial crisis.
Woll also backed the recent Occupy-allied “move your money” campaign, Read the rest of this entry »
Contact Your Senator for the 99%
Working familes in Washington, D.C., and Cannes, France (where leaders of the G-20 are meeting), rallied yesterday for passage of a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street. You can join the action by telling Wall Street it’s time to pay its fair share.
The Robin Hood (financial speculation) tax is a tiny pinch that would be felt primarily by high-volume, high-speed traders who deal in stocks, bonds, foreign currency bets, derivatives and other Wall Street financial products. Yesterday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced just such legislation, the “Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act.”
Click here to call your senators in support of a financial speculation tax. If you complete at least one call, we’ll send you a free “I am the 99%” bumper sticker.
Wall St. Run Wild—Here’s How It Happened
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Here’s a great video that shows in part how the nation got to the point where inequality is so rampant, CEO greed so unrepentent and Wall Street so not held accountable that people across the nation have taken to the streets—and are staying there.
As Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren says here:
We go with this idea of “Let’s get rid of regulation” and what happens? Late 1980s, savings and loan crisis—should have been a warning. Late 1990s, remember long-term capital management, hedge funds? Should have been a warning. Early 2000s, Enron—should have been a warning. But we let it go and where did we end up? In the biggest crisis since the Great Depression.
H/T to MoveOn.org for featuring this clip from Lance Baxter’s YouTube channel.
Friday Fun: Watch a Bankster Squirm
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Check out this video and see what happens when a Bankster is confronted with his own greed—and brought along to admit that a teeny, tiny financial transaction (“Robinhood”) tax on stock trading wouldn’t hurt that industry one bit. But it would make a huge difference in the lives of the 99 percent.
Occupy Wall Street: ‘Working Families Are Struggling’
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Ja-Rei Wang, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, writes about her experience with Occupy Wall Street in New York City.
I was one of more than 1,000 students, working families, parents, freelance artists, union members, health care providers and immigrants who weaved through Manhattan’s sidewalks to Washington Square Park to protest the growing wealth inequality in our country, rising unemployment, powerful corporate influence on politics and the need for financial reform, among other concerns. The marching contingent was made up of a diverse group of people of all ages, genders and ethnicities taking part over the weekend in Occupy Wall Street’s “International Day of Action.”
Parents marched in tow with their young children, some of whom even led protesters in chants. There were supportive honks and cheers from people passing by in cars and on the streets when protesters chanted: “We are the 99 percent! You are the 99 percent!”
The energy, spirit and camaraderie from the march followed protesters into Washington Square Park after a stop at a Chase bank to support people moving their money from large banks to local banks. At a General Assembly organized by physicians practicing in the Bronx, doctors shared their personal stories as health care providers and the stories of their patients that led them to believe we need “Healthcare for the 99 Percent.”
One doctor from the Bronx described the links between the economic crisis, persistent poverty, food insecurity, unemployment, lack of education and poor health:
Gordon Gekkos Are Running for Office All Over Ohio
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Andy Richards, AFL-CIO field communications director in Ohio, sends us this report.
Some of you may remember Gordon Gekko, the unscrupulous Wall Street trader from the 1987 Academy Award-winning film “Wall Street.” Gekko—played by Michael Douglas and returning this Friday in a new sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”—uses unethical and deceitful tactics to amass an immense amount of wealth on the backs of working families. “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works,” says Gekko, a phrase that has become part of popular usage.
Flash forward more than 20 years and you can see the spirit of Gordon Gekko channeled by candidates right here in Ohio. These Wall Street cheerleaders—John Kasich, Rob Portman, Steve Chabot, Tom Ganley, Bob Gibbs, Jim Renacci and Steve Stivers—have voting records that would make Gekko drool. Whether it’s direct ties to corrupt Wall Street corporations, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from Wall Street firms or general unethical and greedy business practices, these candidates rightfully earn the title of Gordon Gekkos of Ohio.
Working People in Boston, Detroit Tell Big Banks: ‘Good Jobs NOW!’
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More than 200 union members and community activists gathered outside the Boston headquarters of Bank of America this week to call on Bank of America and other bailed-out Wall Street investment banks to pay their fair share to restore the jobs destroyed by their reckless actions and to stop their selfish obstruction of needed financial reforms.
And yesterday in Detroit, Saundra Williams, president of the Metropolitan Detroit, AFL-CIO, joined a crowd of union families and communities members at the Bank of America to demand Good Jobs NOW! The actions are among the more than 200 nationwide events taking place through today as part of the AFL-CIO Make Wall Street Pay events.
The Greater Boston Labor Council and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO say more than 40 unions and organizations were represented at the event, which they organized with the SEIU State Council. They submit the following report on the Boston event.
Bank of America, a major culprit in the financial industry’s collapse, received more than $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds. Bank of America and other bailout recipients assured the public they needed the money to loosen up the credit market for small businesses and provide needed investment for building projects. Now, more than a year later, small businesses aren’t hiring due to lack of available credit and stalled construction projects are keeping thousands of men and women in the building trades out of work. In the meantime, Bank of America has spent millions lobbying against financial regulatory reform, executive compensation rules, credit card regulation and the Employee Free Choice Act.
AIG, CNBC: Poster Demons for a Bigger Problem
It took awhile, but now the public is angry—reeaaalllly angry—over the economic wreckage Wall Street has wrought on our nation. Much of the outrage is directed toward AIG, the insurance giant that’s giving billions in taxpayer money in the form of bonuses to the same egregiously overpaid wretches who brought the company to its knees. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just revealed that AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of $1 million or more; 11 of whom are no longer there.
But the “messenger” also is getting its comeuppance, with questions now raised about why CNBC acted as cheerleader for major financial wizards even as they were summoning chaos in our financial markets.
